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Talk:Alfred Thayer Mahan
It must be asked, President Roosevelt: What purpose does this systematic correction of the spelling of "succession box" serve? That the original spelling was wrong is clear, but it links to the correct template either way, and it's not visible on the page, so this just seems like a lot of work for yourself with no significant result. Turtle Fan 20:15, 28 January 2009 (UTC) :Seems just a bit unprofessional (for lack of a better word) to have a template with a repeated spelling error. :Plus, I'm taking the opportunity to add a few more succession boxes here and there. TR 20:19, 28 January 2009 (UTC) ::Ah. Yes, those things are useful. Turtle Fan 20:50, 28 January 2009 (UTC) I've been re-reading Blood and Iron and there is a quote attributed to President Mahan. Something along the lines of 'The problem with Republics is that they eventually tire of paying for their defence.' I'm sure I could find it but I'm far too lazy. Do you think that this was a real Mahan quote or one that Turtledove added for effect? If so, would it be worthwhile adding to this page? :I did a quick Google. Came up blank. :It could be added to the page anyway. TR's quotes section contains only one OTL quote, the "Man in the Arena" speech. And Featherston's quotes are all, of course, ficticious. Turtle Fan 02:19, 2 February 2009 (UTC) ::The problem with the quote is that it's really Morrell paraphrasing Mahan to the best of his memory. ::In my google wanderings, I have found quotes of a similar tone from Mahan, so I suspect he did say something to that effect.TR 21:46, 2 February 2009 (UTC) :::You could just pick the closest one you've been able to find and throw it in there. Turtle Fan 21:49, 2 February 2009 (UTC) Middle name Actually, Mahan used his middle name in his personal and professional life. He published under his full name. TR 14:22, June 30, 2010 (UTC) :Well Elizabeth I of England didn't use the I in her personal nor professional life, nor William I of England, et cetera. Noblemen didn't all use their titles and others don't use their names, et cetera. I was under the impression we were looking to standardize naming procedures. :Looking into Presidential middle names has uncovered some amusing trivia questions. Starting at present and going backward, we've had a Husein, a Walker, a Jefferson, a Herbert Walker, a Wilson, an Earl, a Rudolph, a Milhaus, a Baines, a Fitzgerald, a David, an, umm, S, a Delano, a Clark, a Calvin, a Gamaliel, a Woodrow, and a Howard. When we get back to the elder Roosevelt it becomes ordinary for Presidents not to have middle names. The next-most recent one was Cleveland (Grover), then Arthur (Alan), Garfield (Abram), Hayes (Birchard), and Grant (Simpson). Before that little streak it was even rarer, with the next-most recent being Polk (Knox), then Harrison (Henry), then the younger Adams (Quincy), who was the first President with a middle name. (If you're feeling puckish you might want to count Martin Van Buren as well.) The elder Bush is the only president to date with multiple middle names. Three presidents have used their middle names in place of their first: Stephen Grover Cleveland (ugh--"Stephen Cleveland" would be wretched), John Calvin Coolidge, and Thomas Woodrow Wilson. Turtle Fan 16:30, June 30, 2010 (UTC)